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There was an AMV Iron Chef years ago, way back at the Santa Clara convention center.  They chose 2 editors ahead of time, allowed them to bring their own music, and pre-selected an anime that they weren't told about until they were ready to start the contest (iron chef style).  The editing rigs were pre-loaded with all the footage they were allowed to use.  It was pretty cool, but I imagine it was fairly costly and complex to arrange everything that way.  Still, I'd love to see it done again!

Whoa!  Thank you for posting the rules so early!  It's a great and wonderful change from the last 2 or 3 years.  And no required theme!  Woohoo!

Are you a new director for the FMVs? 

I hope I'm posting in the right forum, I messed up last time...actually..I messed up twice..I think.  :-\

Anyways

Here's my list:

D.C. Douglas
Roger Craig Smith
Alyson Court
Paul Mercier

Seconded.  As far as I know, D.C. has yet to get any convention limelight time.  With the Alternate/Gold edition coming out in February and March, the hype would coincide pretty nicely with the convention.  Any other RE folk would be great, too, mocap, VA or otherwise.  The thing I like about having game folk at the con is that they're immediately involved with the original process, like JP voice actors.  It's really exciting to meet someone who made the game come to life.

According to the official VAMPS USA Tour Site...

July 23rd (Thu)
From 18:00~
At Kinokuniya Bookstore San Francisco

***Only with proof of purchased tickets, print-outs, Ticket Master ticketing proof - barcode
No guest list, press invite, VIP list or anybody with invitation, contest winners, VIP tickets.

So we didn't miss anything.  Bummer, but it was still a great opportunity to just get into the concert.

I tried hooking up my Ps2 to watch dvd's and play games and so on but when I call them and ask them about it, they told me the tv doesn't support that kind of thing (>=o=)>
So in the end, I wind up watching crappy commercial all night. But I did take a lot of their tea and coffee as gifts >.<

Wait, if I'm not mistaken, don't they charge tea/coffee to the bill? I know they do that with those nice bottles of water, so I avoid taking anything other than the mini shampoos.

^(0.0)^
Hmmm, well I open the cab under the TV and saw a bottle of water so I just drank it.
But when it's time for check out and my bill came, nothing change or said anything about the water bottle.

They definitely don't charge for the tea or coffee, it's like the shower amenities.  They're free.  The water, on the other hand, was supposed to cost 4 dollars.  If you're talking about your bill when you checked out, they reserve the right to alter it if they find that you've used something (or taken something) that they didn't know about.  So you might want to keep an eye out for that. 

Ok, here's what went down. When I called, I just asked if they could send a maintanece guy up, without telling them what for. The guy came up and asked what was up. We explained it to him, and he unscrewed the back of the TV, and showed us a small grey/silver box that was connected to the tv by a phone cable like thing. Unplugging the cable from the tv disables the hotel control of the channels. Unfortunately, then he had to give us a special remote that he let us hang onto for the duration of the convention.

Thanks for the info. If I go to the con/stay at the Marriott next year, I'll ask them to send up the maintenance dude instead of just asking.  Since at least one other person said they called and asked and got the same info as me, there's a chance the guy did it under the table for you... which is pretty awesome! Hopefully he won't get in trouble for it.

You can probably also request a lower floor in the special requests section when you reserve your hotel online.  I've never tried it, but they'd probably be willing to honor it, so long as you don't show up on Sunday or something.

I honestly don't know what the problem is. This year, we called the maintenence guy and he came up and...yes, did explain that the HOtel has it set up so we're unable to play our systems. HOWEVER, he merely took the back panel off the TV and showed us how to D/C the hotel TV programming and make it so we can play our XBOX 360. He left us a special remote so we could change the input and all. He ended up telling us, "You wouldn't have been able to play your XBOX if you hadn't have called me up to do it." So...maybe I just got a really nice guy..or something, I dunno.

Wow, lucky.  I think when we called it was around 10 or 11 pm, so maybe the maintenance folk weren't up and about at that time.  Of course chances are all you had to do was get the wrong person on the phone, and even with your story as evidence, they wouldn't send up anyone.  I dunno.  Wanna post the info on how they did it for next year? :P  Or did you require the remote even after the back was removed?

Let's see...

I'm in agreement on the badges.  I'd prefer the fan name to be bigger, the real name to be smaller.  I always kept my badge in a pocket or bag, and just took it out to get in to rooms, though I realize this is technically against policy.  (Of course, I would've taken it out if anyone wanted to see it.)  But the name deal was part of that.

All I can say is AWESOME!! to getting ahold of Sheva's actress.  Wonderful surprise.  Also, thanks to the con (or Sokodei themselves, whichever) for listening to the fan whinings of no Fanboy Bebop.  Getting to see that back to back with Nescaflowne was a kick.  And yes, it's still hilarious.

The pocket guide is great.  Should've shown up years ago, lol, but it's wonderful now that we've got it. 

On to the negatives...

Can something be done about the crowd around Stage Zero? I realize it's nigh impossible considering it draws such a huge crowd from time to time and there aren't enough seats, but bloody hell, getting around on the concourse when all the seats are full and there's 50 more people standing behind the chairs is stupidly hard.  Con management is adamant about throwing us out of a room or doorway if we're a so-called fire hazard, maybe something similar could be done in this situation?

I personally wish the food vendor information had been a bit more specific.  I don't know if the main vendor (directly to the left of stage zero) usually closed at night, but from the way the pocket guide was phrased, it sounded like all the vendors + Starbucks would be open all morning and night. At least one night that vendor in particular just packed up and left.  I wasn't out on the concourse nightly, so I don't know if they did everyday, but I doubt it, since they were there until at least 4 am and I never saw them *not* there, even on Monday.  It'll just simplify things a little, so you can plan your food detail more easily.  Maybe just a table with their hours, idk.

I'll post more if I remember anything else. I'm still in a post-con stupor.

Boom boom pow!



I headed outside for a free can of Amp and found myself here. Fun stuff.

I have no doubts they'll be back in 2010.

Are you KIDDING? I can't believe the posture of that ass in the "Turn to jesus" shirt, up in that girl's face.  I admire her for staying her ground, but what the hell. It's bad enough they're swarming all over the front of the convention center, but to deliberately get in someone's face like that? Stupidly aggressive and repulsive.  Bastard.

I must agree. People at the con, without fail, are always friendly. Whether it's someone starting up a conversation in an over-packed elevator or a hug on the concourse, most of the people you encounter would be happy to chat, even if it turns out you don't have particularly similar interests.  But hell, at an anime con, the odds of that are reduced dramatically.  Sorry you felt lonely, though.  I was personally surprised to still see so many people around on Monday.  Last year it felt like a ghost town by checkout...

There were so many mens and womens rooms, there were probably all different kinds through them. I know at least two of the womens' rooms I went to had two-ply.  The one upstairs at the Hilton, and the one in the Dealer's Hall.  They probably just used whatever they had available to them as they restocked things.

In the future I think providing hours in the pocket guide (Which was VERY helpful by the way) which Con Pre-Reg is open for next year would be great. I was told they'd be open till 2PM, went down at 1:14, and they were already shut up.

~Chun

Agreed. The pocket guide was awesome, and adding the reg info would be nice. I've never regged at the con, but I'd heard that it was sometimes in the dealer's room... I didn't see anything. Where was it?

Marriott.

Pros: Everyone was ridiculously friendly, from check in to our departure. Really awesome people, felt invited.  Room was great, A/C was fine.

Cons: TV wouldn't let us hook up the 360! Well, we could hook it up, but it wouldn't play. The staff informed us that they'd set it up so that you couldn't do such a thing (I dunno if they'd disconnected the A/V ports or what) but now other people are reporting they were able to use their TV to play stuff.  I'm really annoyed about that.  Secondly, we got locked out of our room (automatically) at about 11:55 am.  Both of our phones (time is satellite-set) said it was only 11:55, yet the key wouldn't let us in. So we had to call up someone to let us in. It took 45 minutes, while our ride grilled to death in the car outside.  Lame.  On the plus side, the person who came to help us was really nice about it.  Too bad we had to call 3 times to make it happen. Internet was painfully slow.

The hotel was nice and quiet (at least on our floor) this year, a nice change from prior years.

No, I'm not talking about inputs on the side of the TV. There's a separate input box on the side of the drawers that the TV sits on. And it does work. I just tested a PS2 on it.

Aw, hell.  We don't have anything like that. :( 

The only room I've seen to be able to set up their consoles is the VIP/Staff Lounge on the 4th floor.  Can't explain why they are able to, but I shake my fist everytime I have to stop by.

Hmmm.... Maybe someone should harass them about it XD If only they'd post here!

I have no idea about the Marriott, but the Hilton also has LCDs now. I haven't tried hooking anything up to it, but it seems like you can since there's a whole input panel in the side that looks designed for guests to use. It has HDMI, VGA, composite, S-video, and 1/8" audio in. I wish I brought my 360.  :P

Sadly, that's the thing over here, too.  These LCDs are relatively new- that is, they weren't in my room last year at the con- and have a nice, friendly-looking A/V and SVideo panel on the left side of the screen.  But if you plug in something, nothing happens, and there isn't a channel to view what you just plugged in.  "At your Service" has told us that they've simply disabled it, somehow, whether that's keeping us from going to the channel to view it on or genuinely disconnecting the A/V cable ports, I don't know.  But it's so disappointing! :( 

So, has anyone else tried hooking up a console to a Mariott television yet?  I've got a flatpanel, I don't know if everyone does.  Though chances are we all do.  It's got the A/V ports set up on the side, but when we plugged in the XBOX, nothing happened.  Couldn't find a channel to view it.  Eventually we called up "At your service", who consulted with a techie, and informed us that the Mariott has set it up so that you can't hook up things like consoles to your TVs.  I guess to route more people to their pay per view and crap.  Has anyone found a work around yet?  We've scoured all the channels, no luck, and the remote control they've given is pretty simplistic so I can't try all the things I could if I have the one I've got at home.

EITHER WAY, this is a drag.  One of the reasons folks have been coming to this hotel instead of the Hilton is that you can hook up your game consoles or whatever, whereas prior to the Hilton renovation (I don't know if it's possible now or not) you couldn't.  Now we can't here either.  There's probably going to be a lot of people tomorrow night raging about this...  Ho hum...  I'm just disappointed, I wouldn't have dragged the 360 here if I'd known. :( 

uhm do they really like put that on the news coz i could be in some serious trouble O.o like my parents have started watching KRON 4 just this year >.< and i crossplay EVERY YEAR! like what channels do thay put it on? KTVU and KRON 4 are the 2 my parents watch... PLEASE SOMEONE GET BACK TO ME!!!!!!

Calm down.
We've had coverage on various media including print and television. It's not the same every year and sometimes we're covered over multiple channels/prints.

Keep in mind that this was FanimeCon 2002 where KRON covered us. It might or might not be them again for FanimeCon 2009. :P

another thing im all O.o over is the fact that they apparently NOT only watch KRON now they watch KTVU channel 2...

Whoa, whoa, calm down.

First: The odds of a news team being there are unknown, and thus not guaranteed.
Second: The odds of a news team being there AND filming every cosplayer in sight are unlikely.
Third: The odds of them being there, filming, and filming YOU are unlikely.  Plus, if you saw them, you'd know better than to be throwing yourself at the camera, no?
Fourth: The odds of them actually showing footage of crossplayers on TV are unlikely.  It'd probably be considered controversial and get negative attention for the con rather than positive.  (I don't care either way, but I'm talking about the general public here... we're probably odd enough to them for dressing up at all, let alone cross-play). 

Tl;dr: Stay away from news vans and professional video cameras.  You'll be fine.

Tempers flare...

Hilton was the first hotel I stayed at for the con, and as such, I was more than happy to stay there again.  As for not staying at the Marriott, after the smoke issue at the Hilton, I did indeed switch to the Marriott in the following year.  I shouldn't have to explain myself (I appreciate the apology) but I will anyway; I am not physically able to hike from the external hotels to the convention center with ease, not to mention it would be inconvenient, and as for the Marriott, the elevator wait is miserable.  All I had to do was visit the hotel briefly to drop off a friend at his room and wait 20 minutes to get there and back to the lobby again how much it sucked.  So yeah, I stuck with the Hilton.  In the prior 2 years I'd been there I'd never had any problems with smelling smoke.

Two unfortunate issues... frankly, it doesn't matter whether the entire hotel is 100% nonsmoking or not, just like it doesn't matter if the rooms have a max occupancy of 4 people per room.  People will do it if they think they can get away with it, and since it's not like every hotel comes equipped with hotel monitors, it's more likely.  No, they're not too likely to smoke within a room (theirs or not) in the 100% smoke free property since they'll probably get charged a boatload for it, but, they can still do it in the hallways.  And no, I'm not saying all smokers do this, or all con-goers do this... Just the inconsiderate pricks.

And as for the Hilton switching to smoke free, there's probably not much the concierge or whoever it is that's communicating with us can tell you.  The entire state of Cali is getting less and less smoker friendly and forcing them to go farther if they want to smoke.  You'd probably have to take it up with the head honchos of this particular branch...  I realize it's probably as much of an inconvenience for a smoker to have to haul ass outside in the middle of the night to smoke as it is for me to skip the clogged elevators and haul ass up and down the stairs with arthritis, but, what can you do.  It wouldn't hurt my feelings if hotels would consider putting an area within their hotels for people to come to to smoke... you could stay in a non-smoking room, and they could put a specific ventilation system to make sure it didn't get pumped into the entire hotel.  Be far less unpleasant than freezing your butt off outside.  I doubt it'll happen in CA hotels, though... they really are trying to make smoking look like the worst stigma on the face of the planet nowadays.

I for one am not at all displeased that the Hilton is going 100% nonsmoking.  Being a nonsmoker, I suppose that's easy enough for me to say.  However, during my last visit at the Hilton, I stayed in a nonsmoking room, surrounded by nonsmoking rooms, and was still accosted at one point with the smell of cigarette smoke pouring into the room.  I was never certain if it was someone smoking in the hallway or coming through the ventilation system, but it was appalling.  If changes were made to make sure this kind of thing didn't happen, that'd be fine for me, but it's probably easier to simply ionize all of the rooms,  and deem the whole hotel nonsmoking rather than employ rigorous filters on their air systems and monitor the hallways.  (The latter of which I don't think would do any good.  I am pretty sure the smoke was coming FROM the hallway.  Ugh.)

I wanted to stay at the Hilton so bad this year, but Thursday doesn't seem to be available as a check in day. Did everyone grab it up already? I booked the Marriott so I could have a room connected, but I really had my heart set on the Hilton.

Seconding this question.  If it's not going to be available, I can go to the Mariott, but it'd be nice to know soon...